Friday, December 12, 2008

"Ray McGovern speaks to Paul Jay about Barack Obama's appointment of Robert Gates to his cabinet. Though Obama campaigned on a platform of change in the U.S.'s approach to foreign policy, McGovern says Obama’s appointments don't indicate a change is coming. He says the appointments demonstrate a continuation of the mentality that led the United States into war in Vietnam, Iraq, and now again, in Afghanistan. This mentality has been demonstrated to fail in Iraq by a UCLA researcher who used satellite imagery to show the U.S.'s occupation has favored Shias over Sunis. This mentality, of going to war to liberate a people, according to McGovern, is a result of a lack of diversity in the kind of advisers previous presidents have chosen to surround themselves with, and he sees it repeated with Obama's chosen cabinet ."